Screening and consent
Whether you need signed consent before a credit check depends on which province the home is in. It is not the same across a two-hour drive, and getting it wrong is your liability, not the applicant's.
Last updated 28 July 2026
Province by province
New Brunswick
Written consent, before the check
Federal privacy law governs here, and it means what it says: you need the applicant's written consent in hand before you pull a credit report. Consent buried in a paragraph nobody read is not consent.
Nova Scotia
The applicant must be informed
Nova Scotia is the exception. The applicant has to be told the check will happen; signed consent is not separately required. Kaza still captures a record of the disclosure, because being right and being able to show you were right are different things.
Prince Edward Island
Written consent
Treated as the written-consent standard. Where a province's position is not confirmed to the same level as the two above, Kaza takes the more protective route rather than the more convenient one.
Manitoba
Written consent
Same approach. Written consent is never the wrong answer; assuming you did not need it can be.
What Kaza does about it
- Consent is asked for as its own step, in plain words, not folded into a wall of text at the bottom of an application form.
- What was agreed to, and when, is written to the append-only activity log, so if it is ever disputed there is a record rather than a recollection.
- The result of a check is attached to the decision, with the reason on record, so an approval or a decline can be explained months later.
What is still on you
A credit report tells you about somebody’s finances. It does not license a decision made on a protected ground. Provincial human rights law applies to renting in every province Kaza covers, and no software can make a discriminatory decision lawful by documenting it neatly.
Collect what you need for the decision and no more. Information you did not need is information you now have to protect, keep, and eventually explain.
Where the screening itself happens
Live screening runs through a provider your company connects on its own account, on your own terms with them. Kaza records the consent, the decision and the reason. If you have not connected one, nothing is sent anywhere.
The full list of third parties that ever receive data is on the sub-processors page.